New NS Rescue Station & Body Recovered From Cap. River

Just a quick post on 2 pieces of news. Both North Shore Rescue related, but one good news and one bad.

First the good news about some new funds for North Shore Rescue that will help build a new station in the Indian Arm:

North Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) July 7, 2009 — The money, part of which is being used for a new search and rescue station in Indian Arm, could not have come at a better time, after North Shore Rescue was called out to the top of Indian Arm the same weekend.

“As fate would have it, the day after the golf tournament our team was called up to Granite Falls in Indian Arm to help a 14-year-old male who fractured his ankle when he fell into a creek drainage bed. The hiker was rescued using a Talon helicopter and taken to the Bone Creek Search & Rescue Station,” said Tim Jones of North Shore Rescue.

“This incident highlighted the clear need for a Search & Rescue Station in Indian Arm due to the logistics of performing rescues there and the need for back-up plans if the helicopter option fails. We are working very closely with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation to build a new Station and know it will greatly increase our ability to respond effectively.”

At the Seymour Golf & Country Club, North Shore Rescue team members gave tournament participants a chance to experience a water rescue. Golfers were strapped onto a rescue board and lifted above one of the course’s water hazards. Tournament attendees also had the chance to bid on helicopter flights, guided hiking tours and dinner at the North Shore Rescue cabin during the live auction.

The North Shore, with its amazing mountain ranges that we can ski down in the winter and hike up in the summer, is a great place to live. North Shore Credit Union is a big advocate of people getting outside to exercise in our natural surroundings, but we also want to make sure that people are safe,” noted Louise DeVita, Tournament Organizer and Controller at NSCU.

“North Shore Rescue is a highly-trained and amazingly dedicated group of volunteers. Holding this golf tournament every year is our way of saying thank you for all the hard work you do to keep us safe.”

And some bad news when a fisherman died Monday after a fall into the Capilano River.

A morning fishing trip ended in tragedy for a North Vancouver man who drowned after he fell into the icy waters of the Capilano River.

Just before 8:00 a.m. Monday, the 53-year-old man slipped and fell about seven metres into a deep pool of water as he was fishing from the rocks near the fish hatchery in Capilano River Regional Park.

Another man who was fishing along side of him ran to the hatchery to call for help but by the time he returned the man had already gone under.

North Shore Search and Rescue members recovered the body a short time later but the man could not be revived.

“I can’t believe it, I just saw this guy,” fisherman Al Menhaj said.

“I was here about five this morning and then two people came and one of them is the guy who’s dead now. I don’t think I’m going to come here again for fishing because it’s terrible.”

The victim’s name has not been released.

Mounties are warning people who use the popular park to stay off the rocks, especially when it’s raining as they can be very slippery.

The frigid rivers of North Vancouver, well known for cliff diving and hiking trails, are often deadly. In May, a 6-year-old boy died after falling into the fast-moving Lynn Creek north of the popular Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge.

About 80 people drown each year in British Columbia.